36 
NEW-YORK FAUNA-BIRDS. 
Description. Nostrils partially covered behind by a membrane, leaving a small tubular 
aperture. Tongue short, cartilaginous, bifid. Feet muscular; claws exceedingly sharp. 
The shafts of the tail-feathers elongated into sharp, strong and very elastic points. 
Color. Brownish black above; somewhat lighter on the rump. Throat greyish white. 
Eyes black, surrounded by a bare black skin : a light colored line over the eye. 
Length, 4'0 - 5'0. 
The Chimney Swallow appears in New-York about the latter end of April, from the tropical 
regions. Its name is derived, as every one knows, from its selecting a chimney in which it 
builds its nest. In the unsettled districts, it breeds in hollow trees and caverns. Audubon 
relates that he counted nine thousand of these swallows roosting in the hollow trunk of a 
Plane tree (Platanus occidentalis). This occurred in Kentucky. In this State, they build 
exclusively in chimneys, forming their nests of dead twigs, which they break off with their 
feet, and agglutinate together. The eggs are four in number, white unspotted ; and two 
broods are frequently raised in a season. It feeds on insects, which it captures on the wing; 
and, like some of the preceding families, it disgorges the indigestible portions of its food. It 
ranges as far north as the 50th parallel, and westward to the Pacific ocean. Peculiar to 
America. 
(. EXTRA-LIMITAL ) 
C.vauxi. (Townsend, Ac. Sc. Vol. 8, p. 148.) Rump and tail dull cinereous brown; throat and 
upper part of breast greyish white; beneath ash grey. Length, 3| inches. Columbia River. 
